Another prominent political figure is bowing out ahead of the snap election next month: Former education minister Makiko Tanaka will not run for office, sources said Thursday.
The 70-year-old daughter of late Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka failed to win a seat in the Lower House election in December 2012. She has conveyed her decision to executives with the Democratic Party of Japan, which had selected her as its official candidate for a Niigata Prefecture constituency.
Tanaka won a Lower House seat for the first time in 1993 on a Liberal Democratic Party ticket and served as foreign minister under then Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi from 2001 to 2002, before resigning over a financial scandal.
Tanaka later won election as an independent and joined the DPJ. She served as education minister in the DPJ-led Yoshihiko Noda administration in 2012.